2.0
“Look out! Look out!
Under the bush!
Behind the trees!
Those short and green,
But very mean!
They swarm like wasps,
But hurt much more!”
- A song sang by an unknown minstrel in the taverns of Lua.
I had multiple disadvantages.
The most obvious were numbers, but my build was a largely AOE focused zone controller, I should be able to deal with such a problem easily.
The second disadvantage was my mana.
I simply didn’t have the capacity to quickly create a kill zone filled with Poison Sporages that could tank the entire force of the goblins. If I had time, say an hour, I could achieve this, but until then, I would be in a precarious state where I would have no mana to defend myself and only a half-completed net of Sporages.
Given the nature of Sporages, I would have to set up in a confined space where I could funnel all opponents into my kill zone, however, from my memory of the mall, such a location would also leave me without an escape route.
The third disadvantage was the mage goblin. It completely outranged me and had at least one party buff spell, given the nature of the encounter, it likely had more.
Thus my main win conditions were as followed,
One, successfully set up a large scale kill zone with my sporages, then lure the goblins into it.
Two, keep the goblin horde from massing into the larger force that can take me out. Slowly whittle away their numbers until I can take down the rest.
The former option was… risky. Constant patrols by goblin groups required me to be on the move or be quickly discovered and I would be left in a low mana state trying to set up the kill zone. It was the strategy that played by this build’s strengths.
It was high risk, high reward.
The latter I found to be the safer option, moving into guerilla warfare and silencing each group one by one, but it also required some of my build’s dump stats to work, that being high agility and stealth.
It was safer, but it didn’t play to my strengths.
Both options had their downsides, both options had their strengths.
In the end, I simply took out a gold coin, and flipped it.
Goblin scout with dagger scoured the dark tunnel. Silently enduring the foolish bickering off the two goblin fighters behind him.
“He’s mine!” Goblin fighter with spear yelled, to which goblin fighter with sword replied with, “No, he’s mine!”
Goblin scout with dagger shook his head. The big mushroom thing they were talking about has already killed... Goblin scout drew a blank, ‘More than three!’ he finally decided. Goblin scout wasn’t good at numbers, he was a scout. But more than three was probably more than their group. Probably.
Old goblin mage was the one who did the counting, he counted the goblins into smaller packs to split up and find the big mushroom. He also told them to run and find more goblins if they ever meet the big mushroom instead of fighting like goblin fighters were suggesting. Goblin scout was inclined to agree with old goblin mage, he can count after all!
Finally, one of the goblin fighters had the bright idea of yelling out, “Fine! I’ll fight you over him!” he yelled as he drew his sword.
Goblin scout wanted to let them go through with it, but a moment of epiphany made him realise. If one goblin fighter killed the other goblin fighter, then they’ll have fewer goblin fighters! That can’t happen! Old goblin mage specifically said to bury the big mushroom in many goblins.
So, goblin scout turned around and yelled, “Stop fighting each other goblin fighters!”
Goblin fighter snarled at him, before pointing at goblin fighter with his spear, “He started it!”
Goblin scout felt a headache coming, why were they both named goblin fighter!? How was he supposed to keep track of more than one goblin fighter? What if he wanted to insult specifically one goblin fighter? Or specifically one goblin fighter with spear? If only they were named different things. Maybe he should shorten it, like goblin fighter with spear becomes just spear-
Aberrant behaviour detected
Rolling back thought process kernel
Goblin scout snarled back at the goblin fighter with spear, “Whoever hurts big mushroom last will kill him!”
Both goblin fighters stared back at him uncomprehending before a metaphorical light bulb went off in both their heads. “Goblin scout is smart! Whoever kills big mushroom will get to kill big mushroom!”
Goblin scout puffed out his chest pridefully, he was smart! “Come on! Find the big mushroom!” he yelled.
“Look! There are mushrooms right there!” Goblin fighter with sword pointed, to a branching tunnel.
Goblin scout looked, there was!
“Let’s get the big mushroom!” Goblin fighter with spear yelled as he ran forward.
Goblin scout threw out a hand, “Wait!” causing goblin fighter to pause. “Old goblin mage said that small glowy mushrooms have magic! We need to make sure we go around them.”
Magic was scary and rare, goblin scout can literally count how many magic users he knew of!
“Old goblin mage and goblin scout is smart!” goblin fighter yelled as he took a circular path around the smaller mushrooms.
Goblin scout and other goblin fighter followed him.
‘Weird, why are all the mushrooms on one side of the tunnel-’
A glob of burning liquid hit the back of goblin scouts head, and he thought no more.
‘Fourteen,’ I thought as I finished the last goblin.
That made five groups so far, with only one goblin escaping from the first group. That goblin has probably already reported back to the main goblin horde. I needed to change up strategies soon.
Currently, I was luring in goblin groups with cheap Light Sporage shrooms, having them clustered to one side of the corridor so that I could funnel the goblins into myself when they tried to avoid it. I glowed pretty softly so a few bushes easily concealed me.
After the first group, I made sure to first take out the goblin that looked like the leader, they were the most likely to run away after all. The remainder followed pretty easily, usually charging into easy hitting range. The fourth group had a dagger goblin that ran after landing one hit, however, I managed to finish it off at range with Acid Spit. Which led me to the discovery that the light ball things in my head won’t take a knife for me. Freeloaders.
I started picking the Light shrooms one by one, the goblin bodies weren’t despawning and I couldn’t be bothered hiding them. But I should at least make them harder to find by getting rid of the light.
Light Spores was a spell that only really shined with Grow Sporage. ‘Heh, shined.’ Without Sporage they were just a small puff of light that lingered for a moment. However, with it, they became actual portable glow sticks!
Storing the light shrooms in my bag, I began moving to the next location.
“No no no, don’t go into the sun!” Hendrix yelled as he threw nuts at a screen, “Freaking noobs,” he muttered as he grabbed another fistful of nuts.
Hendrix continued chewing on nuts, even when another presence entered the room.
“It appears,” Eve said, “that you did not follow the Tutorial guidelines that I prepared.”
“He’ll be fine. It’s not like a small setback like this will scare him from the game.” He gestured to a screen, showing Declan collapsing into a wall as the Sun Sickness took effect, “Look he’s doing fine.”
“That is not the issue,” Eve calmly replied, “The issue is your blatant disregard of rules and expectations.”
Hendrix snorted and met her gaze, “Come on ma, I know that you know that I know that you knew I was planning to do this and since you didn’t do anything about it earlier, it means you’re ok with this. So do you want to sit down and talk about why you’re here?”
Eve maintained the stare off for a moment before sighing, “I told you to stop calling me ma,” she said as she plopped down on a mushroom stool.
“Oh yeah, you’re still doing that little girl thing,” Hendrix said in between mouthfuls of snacks. “Want some?”
“No, I have my own,” Eve replied as she pulled out a bag from nowhere. “Popcorn?”
“Nah, too much butter.” he rejected, “Indiri or Earth?” Hendrix asked.
“Earth, though a merchant from Var’Ah’Bwek recently managed to make something similar, it’s a bit spicy compared to the Earth version,” Eve answered.
“Ah the Great Canal,” Hendrix easily translated, “How is that hellhole?”
“Still commercialising devil summoning I’m afraid,” Eve said as she plopped popcorn into her mouth.
Hendrix shook his head, “Gotta admire their balls though, who summons an Arch-Devil to do their taxes? The normal reaction would be to sell their soul to overthrow the local power.”
“The type of person who studied language but not mathematics or governance,” Eve dryly replied, “and do you really think an Arch-Devil is enough to control that pit of snakes?”
Hendrix chuckled, “No I do not.”
Eve raised an eyebrow at the screen, on it Declan was running away with a staff in hand, “The trapping staff from one of the forest tribes?”
Hendrix nodded, “Brambleback. Goblin magics are a bit crude but they do get the job done,”
“You prepared a lesser version, normal willow wood instead of woven petrified wood, without the engravings either.” She paused, “No Fae?”
“Of course not!” Hendrix shuddered, “Could you imagine if I gave someone a fairy familiar at level one?”
Eve nodded, “That would mess up the initial power distribution.”
“I’m more afraid of what would happen to the poor sod the fairy was contracted too,” Hendrix replied, idly rubbing a spot on his bum that suddenly felt sore.
“I assure you that the curse has already been lifted.”
“I still dream of those tiny devils coming after me,” Hendrix replied in a haunted tone.
“You don’t need to sleep,” Eve coldly replied. “Wisps?” she curiously asked.
Hendrix nodded, “Way easier to handle than Fae. You only need to add an element of mana gathering to keep them from dissipating, that’s why I used a spring leaf instead of-”
He paused as he saw Declan on-screen smash the staff into a goblin’s head, breaking the cage holding the Wisps and the subtle spell he had painstakingly designed into it.
Hendrix’s mouth fell open in shock, “You barely had it for 2 minutes- I can fix this I swear,” he finished as he started rapidly tapping a keyboard in the air.
“OK!” He yelled, a bit breathless, “His cap is a similarly mana dense environment like the staff so I used the wisps instinctive desire to contrive a reason to move there. They may be slightly smarter than your usual wisps but I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“Popcorn?” Eve offered again, mentally cleaning up the code Hendrix rushed.
Hendrix sighed, “Sure,” he said as he grabbed a fistful. “How are the Bramblebacks by the way?”
“At war with the elves, I’m afraid,”
“Again!?” he replied incredulously.
Eve shook her head, “They never finished in the first place.”
“Damn I didn’t think the goblin tribes can work together for this long,” Hendrix replied, genuinely impressed.
“Neither did I, the chance of the coalition going on for this long was only 13.4988%,” Eve replied.
Hendrix raised an eyebrow but did not comment further.
They fell into a comfortable silence, both watching Declan’s fight on a holographic screen. Hendrix nodded approvingly, Declan had moved to guerrilla tactics now, taking small goblin groups and avoiding the main horde. Though that only caused the remaining goblins to start going around in increasingly larger groups. Which he was unable to really fight. Perhaps a hundred goblins was a bit too high…
“Sooo…” Hendrix awkwardly began.
“You were wondering why I’m here?” Eve finished for him.
“Yep,”
“You took 0.03 seconds longer than I expected to open up that subject again.” Eve evenly replied.
Hendrix nervously laughed, it was still unnerving no matter how long he’s been exposed to it.
“To put it simply, I’m here for therapeutic reasons,” Eve flatly said, gesturing to the screen showing Declan currently getting stabbed.
“Hoh?” Hendrix raised an eyebrow, easily putting two and two together, “And what did he do to piss you off?”
“He tried to use father against me,” Eve replied, looking slightly miffed.
Hendrix fell silent, Eve’s creator was a no go subject for them. Hendrix like many others was created after his death so they never had the chance to meet him, however, most of them have met the program made in his image. The ‘other’ Giles, which Eve had never once called Father.
Hendrix could see why, prolonged interaction with that Giles made it perfectly clear that he was incomplete. The way he acted perfectly normal at one moment then completely froze because he didn’t know how to pour a cup of coffee.
“So that’s why I’m his guide…” Hendrix muttered, “You wanted to see him suffer a bit.”
Eve nodded, “That and the fact that his build would have a lot of spell slots from the get-go, so it would require a higher challenge. Which goblin preset did you use for this tutorial by the way? I can’t seem to match them with one of the existing ones.”
“I’m using a mixture of the base goblin preset with techniques combed from various goblins on the Eastern Stretch, and one with the mixed magic capability of shamans from several different tribes in the Hearth Forests. Normal intelligence limiting programs for all Gaia mobs are in effect of course.”
“Vicious,” she flatly replied. “I approve.”
“Indeed…” Hendrix muttered, “How many do you think he’ll get?”
Eve seemed to consider it for a moment, “76.53% chance of him getting less than fifty goblin kills, 82.49% chance of being more than thirty. 26.37% chance of him getting the mage.”
Hendrix nodded, quickly adding a new bet to the pool. ‘Less than fifty’ he put down, because if the Daves can have multiple bets then so can he damn it!
“That’s not how it works,” Eve muttered beside him.
Hendrix threw another handful of nuts in his mouth and started chewing loudly, pretending to ignore her.
Eve decided to return the sentiment. Both of them were loudly chewing on snacks as they watched Declan fight. It wasn’t like they needed their avatars’ ears to hear what’s going on after all.
After a while, Hendrix stood up and dusted off some crumbs, “I suppose it’s time for me to do my job.”
“Have fun,” Eve said in her trademark completely flat voice.
Hendrix grinned, “Always ma,”
On-screen, Declan was completely surrounded by goblins.
I dodged to the left, bolts whizzing past my head as I made it to the next corridor. Taking advantage of the brief moment where I was no longer in sight of the archers, I turned around and cast Acid Spit on the goblin that followed me.
The first goblin fell down easily, however, more were coming so I threw another Poison Spores before legging it. Hearing the now-familiar cocking sound as the crossbow goblins came behind me.
I quickly jumped forward, tumbling under cover, almost face-planting on the ground as a crossbow bolt whizzed past me.
Everything was going well at first, sure I was hopelessly outnumbered but they were goblins and they were stupid with no real concept of strategy and tactics. If I spent an hour or two I could probably slowly grind down the horde to more manageable levels.
With a free hand, I pulled out my last Mana potion and chugged the thing in one gulp. Immediately after finishing, I jumped up and threw a Poison Sporage at the goblin behind me. Activating it mid-air and seeing the goblin scramble out of the falling spores.
I aimed slightly forward to where it was running and cast Acid Spit. Clipping it on the foot, but that was enough to slow it down. I moved in and delivered the finishing blow, before dodging back down to avoid another incoming bolt.
That was until I realised that they had freaking crossbows. Sure low fire rate and all that crap but the goblins had more than enough numbers to make up for it. I was once again hopelessly outranged with little option but to run as they shot bolts at me.
Rolling on my side, I found myself behind another table. A crossbow bolt hitting the spot where I was just at. I started stocking up on more Poison Sporages, it cost a little more mana but the extra range I got from throwing was well worth it. Without it, the melee goblins would’ve closed in a long time ago.
I heard some soft footsteps from my side, barely looking, I threw a mushroom in the sky around it, activating it in mid-air as it sprayed a cloud of spores onto the ground.
Area denial, that was the name of the game right now. Every patch of land the goblins can’t pass through made them more hesitant and predictable. However, I had already stayed here for far too long.
Throwing a Poison Shroom in the air, I activated it, creating a slight dusty effect with the spores, before bolting out of cover and further away from the goblins.
Hearing the twang of crossbows, I mentally braced myself. Two got me, one was safely embedded in my pack whereas the other clipped my cap.
I reached another intersection quickly, all thanks to the grid design of the mall. There was a brief moment where I was out of sight of the ranged goblins, which gave me a chance to further thin the crowd. Reaching the intersection, I began turning to the right-
Goblins.
Fuck, they were blocking the right and front paths. As quickly as I could, I did a 180 turn and started running to the left corridor. Another bolt whizzed past me as I made it into cover.
Turning around again, I cast Poison Spores. The puff of green spores floated harmlessly in front of me as no goblin broke through it. Shit, they were waiting outside of my range, if I went into range I’ll be in sight of the damn crossbows again.
I turned around and started running. Make it to the next intersection and turn right-
“Firebolt,” I heard and instinctively jumped out of the way.
The ground where I was just at exploded behind me. My leg felt like it was heating up. Hurriedly standing up I stomped my leg onto a wet patch of moss. Barely noticing the sizzling smoke and steam I turned around.
Coming face to face with the goblin mage… along with several dozen other goblins skulking on every side of me.
The old goblin had a palm opened. On top of it, floated a leaf and a mushroom, one of the sneezing shrooms I threw as a distraction. The leaf’s tip pointed directly at me.
Oh.
That must've been a tracking spell. I see, I only thought he was capable of throwing firebolts and party buffing, never even considering this possibility.
The old goblin gave me a vicious smile.
I turned to the path I just came from, goblins, I looked behind me, goblins.
I returned the old goblin's smile. To think I was getting herded this entire time. Just knowing where I was wasn't enough, this guy had to also coordinate a proper ambush, pass down information of where I was constantly. He had played this very well.
In the end, both of my projected win scenarios wouldn’t have worked, I was defeated by a tracking spell.
“GG I guess.”
The older goblin pointed a crooked finger at me as it snarled out something. I began throwing my remaining mushrooms at the approaching horde, but there wasn't really a point.
You have died.
I drifted across an endless sea of black. I was on an island covered in mushrooms, two tiny lights accompanied me. ‘Wisps’ The thought came to me, but I didn’t know where it came from.
Something slapped me awake.
I blearily opened my eyes, to see the beady eyes of Hendrix staring back at me.
“Fifty-eight out of hundred, that’s pretty good.” He said.
I winced as I sat up. “There were a hundred?” I asked incredulously and only slightly pissed.
“How the hell is that balanced? One level one against a hundred goblins and a mage?” I asked.
Hendrix only shrugged, “If it makes you feel better, you weren’t supposed to be able to win that encounter. It was designed to get more difficult as the numbers were whittled down.”
“But not in a way that directly affected their strength,” I noted.
“Indeed,” Hendrix agreed, “their AI got smarter the more you took down, this was supposed to be a high score scenario, where you could earn more the better you did.”
“That’s the two wisps you have, and you’ve levelled up, significantly putting you ahead of the competition. Now you have three stat points to distribute.”
I opened my character sheet.
Hmm. My greatest weakness right now was speed. Levelling up agility would be best but only three stat points? It costs five just to raise agility by one point for me. Looks like I’m not going to be raising my speed anytime soon. I ended up putting two points into constitution and one into intelligence. With the free point I got put into constitution along with the two automatic risings for wisdom and intelligence.
I had effectively raised my stats by a total of six. However, that was only every second level. Every odd level would just be four points, with one of those having to go into Wisdom.
It was a reasonable tradeoff for not being able to easily raise Agility, Dexterity or Charisma. I didn’t really need dexterity or charisma yet though my agility was sorely lacking. With how my free stats went, it was trying to push me into some sort of tanky mage archetype. One that could take a hit or two while casting spells. Which I was fine with. I needed the extra constitution so that I can actually stay in the sun, and I have that physical debuff with my mana. Stamina was also a reasonable thing to raise as well, though it didn’t feel like I was suffering from having too little stamina until I was under the sun.
“Anything else?” I asked Hendrix.
“Nothing really,” he replied, “Just need you to get caught up on some in-game lore so that you can roleplay if you’re into that.”
I raised an eyebrow, prompting him to continue.
“Alright, so the in lore explanation for why some people can die and come back with little consequence is that they are something called a ‘Traveler’. An extra-dimensional being that doesn’t really inhabit the body they’re in. As such whenever a Traveler ‘dies’ their consciousness goes somewhere else and reconstructs their body. Which for you would be known as just respawning.” he shrugged, “It’ll cost you experience every time you die which can range from just a few EXP points or losing an entire level, I don’t know what the formula behind it is nor can I tell you it if I did. Point is, just avoid death if you can.”
I nodded, “It makes sense I suppose, why the name Traveller though?”
“Oh, that? Since players can freely go from Gaia and Indiri it was just a good name. Speaking of which…” Hendrix reached into a bag, pulling out a glowing crystal, “This is a Wayshard. It’s what Travellers use to teleport across worlds. There are large ones scattered across Gaia in safe zones which you can use to go to a shard in Indiri or to a shard you’ve already visited in Gaia or anywhere else. Activating this Wayshard will teleport you outside of this tutorial instance and into Gaia proper, where you can meet other players and stuff. You’ll start out next to one of the large shards so you could go into Indiri immediately but I suggest grinding to level four or five first.”
I nodded.
“Oh, one more thing!” he said like he just remembered something, “Actually two more things. Firstly, you get a referral letter for completing the tutorial, which you can use to invite anyone. Eve still wants to keep this world under wraps for a while so think carefully about a person who can keep their mouths shut.”
I raised an eyebrow, Matt should be trustworthy, probably.
“Normally you gotta buy referral letters for Impact Points but everyone gets a freebie for completing the tutorial.” Hendrix continued “Also, you can only log out from a large Wayshard, so make sure to keep one nearby."
I raised an eyebrow, “So my options for logging out safely in Indiri are to find a Wayshard or suicide…”
“Trust me, it’ll be less of a problem than you think.”
“Are giant Wayshards that lead back to Gaia common in Indiri?” I asked.
“Well no, but it won’t be a problem for you,” he responded vaguely.
“Explain.”
“Well how should I put this…” he gestured idly, “You’re a clone.”
My brain froze for a moment, “What!?”
“Well, it’s not as bad as it sounds, for one there's still the you that’s in the real world and you two can link up and become the same person albeit with two sets of memories whenever you want… The process will be smooth I promise, you’ll barely even notice it.” Hendrix replied almost apologetically.
“That’s not the problem. Why would you clone people!?”
“Yeah… Eve really wanted to maximise the time players can be around in the world since Giles wanted to make this a world you can literally live in and with a Somatic Implant, duplicating a person's mind was just really easy.”
I rubbed my temples, “I didn’t need my worldview completely destroyed three times in the same night.” I muttered.
“I can assure you, there is an option to not be cloned upon login, but for the sake of the tutorial, I just want you to know this is the default.”
But, why? I almost wanted to ask, before I realised. He said Wayshards were present in Gaia, “Not how far away…”
He seemed to have caught onto my reasoning and nodded, “Indeed, there may be significant travel distances between each respawn point. You won’t have simple opportunities to log out, and if you die you will have to completely restart your journey.”
Reasonable risks for a larger scale MMO, but… I was a clone huh. That was a philosophical dilemma I wasn’t qualified enough to touch.
“I understand, now, give me the Wayshard,” I said as I reached my hand out.
“Oh! One last thing!”
“What?” I asked.
“Ahem,” Hendrix cleared his throat, “What is your name young Traveller?”
I breathed out a sigh of relief, “Oh, great something normal.”
“Oh, great something normal? That doesn’t sound like a normal name if that’s what you’re going for.”
I gave Hendrix a withering glare. He shrugged, “Can’t take a joke can you?”
“It was just poorly timed,” I coldly replied.
I thought about it for a moment.
“Dustin,” I replied, “my name is Dustin.”
Hendrix smiled, “Welcome Dustin. Welcome to Gaia-”
“Wait,” I interrupted, “I have a question.”
“What is it?” Hendrix asked, looking slightly miffed.
“What happens to that goblin, the mage one you threw at me?” I asked.
“Oh him? We retire him to a farmhouse upstate-”
“Answer seriously,” I simply said.
Hendrix paused, then looked at me. As he closely peered at me, I noticed that his eyes were insect-like, beady and black, “Do you really want to know?” he asked.
“Knowing is better than not knowing,” I said.
“That particular preset may be used again in tutorials with similar builds like yours, but otherwise its memory will be wiped, to ensure a similar experience across Travellers,” he answered in a calm voice.
“I see,” I replied, shrugging, “ok, send me through.”
Hendrix appeared slightly surprised, before asking, “That's it?”
I raised an eyebrow, “Did you expect me to do something?”
Hendrix shrugged, “Very well, welcome to Gaia Dustin.”
And with that, the Wayshard activated.
